Discussions

The development and IT teams are often at odds about how much access development should have to production servers. When something breaks, development needs access to everything from system logs to the app. IT needs to control access to those resources. This parody expresses the frustrations from both camps.
Based on the famous last scenes from the movie Der Untergang (Downfall) about the collapse of the Third Reich, this parody presents a tongue-in-cheek version of the arguments put forth by production IT teams against giving developers access to production systems for problem resolution--even when it's the best option for the enterprise.
Keynote speaker at TheServerSide Java Symposium Jon Kern referred to it during his presentation, and some enterprise integration community leaders have blogged about it as well.
Note: The speech is in German, with English subtitles that contain some coarse language that may not be safe for work.

I find it to be of very, very bad taste to make any kind of comparison to the nazi regime. I personally cannot believe that recognized serverside speakers would refer to this kind of material as funny or instructive.

That offends me!
But seriously, the best thing to do about horrible events in the past is to never talk about them. That way when similar things begin to occur in the future, no one will see it coming and do anything to stop it.

It's not about not talking about horrible events from the past, but about trivializing them. The word Nazi has become so trivialized that it's nearly come to mean someone who's simply hard headed and inflexible.

It's not about not talking about horrible events from the past, but about trivializing them. The word Nazi has become so trivialized that it's nearly come to mean someone who's simply hard headed and inflexible.

I think it's great to trivialize Nazis. It doesn't require trivializing the holocaust. I really don't see any problem with the word being synonymous with 'foolish *******', which in my opinion is a perfect description of a Nazi (or any racist.) It's a lot better than imparting a false aura of power (and a perverse prestige) to being a Nazi. Few people would join up with the neo-"dipshits".
When I was in school, the KKK marched through my town. Nobody came to watch, even to demonstrate. They were just a bunch of pathetic, powerless fools in clown costumes on an empty street. The people who scream at them just validate their idiot ideas.
There's a really good book called "The Logic of Failure" that explains humans often make problems worse with our solutions. Arresting holocaust deniers, criminalizing Nazism, and giving the word Nazi prestige as a forbidden word is, IMO, one of those solutions.

When I was in school, the KKK marched through my town. Nobody came to watch, even to demonstrate. They were just a bunch of pathetic, powerless fools in clown costumes on an empty street. The people who scream at them just validate their idiot ideas.

When my Grand Dad was in school the SA marched through town. Nobody came to watch, since they where only a bunch of pathetic powerless fools in fancy uniforms....
Later on, a lot of people wanted Hitler to take office since this would make it obvious that he was not a good politician, let alone the saviour of Germany....

When I was in school, the KKK marched through my town. Nobody came to watch, even to demonstrate. They were just a bunch of pathetic, powerless fools in clown costumes on an empty street. The people who scream at them just validate their idiot ideas.

When my Grand Dad was in school the SA marched through town. Nobody came to watch, since they where only a bunch of pathetic powerless fools in fancy uniforms....

Later on, a lot of people wanted Hitler to take office since this would make it obvious that he was not a good politician, let alone the saviour of Germany....

Sorry. That didn't make any sense to me. I've seen "Triumph of the Will" and there were quite a few people around at those rallies. The KKK used to be a pretty powerful organization and now it's nearly gone. And that was not achieved by laws criminalizing the organization or people not talking about them. It was achieved by mocking them. They are the punchline to a joke which makes it almost impossible to recruit new members.
The point is not that you shouldn't fight these kinds of people, it's just that they don't deserve any respect. They deserve to be mocked and trivialized and when they step beyond words into actions, they deserve to be jailed or worse. Trivializing the Nazis is not the same things as trivializing what they did.
The next group of assholes we need to worry about are not going to be called Nazis. They are going to be called something else. Forbidding the use of a word or outlawing a specific organization solves nothing.
How about this, Americans won't mock the Nazis if Europeans don't mock G. W. Bush. We wouldn't want to trivialize him, right?

...organization or people not talking about them. It was achieved by mocking them. They are the punchline to a joke which makes it almost impossible to recruit new members.

Amen. And in Europe where it is outlawed, it's easy to turn kids in to Neo-Nazi's. If the powers that be outlaw something, it must be cool!

And there's no better way to give a kook credibility than to arrest them for stating their conspiracy theory.

Honestly, I think you are a bit naive about the issue.
Mocking people is only a good idea if they do not have a big enough stick. Once your nose is broken, you will likely change perspective. The fact that organized racism did not prevail in the US is more a lucky twist of history than anything. And mocking the cavallery did not help the native americans much, did it? Ignoring criminals made certain quarters of NYC one of the most dreaded places of North America (including the 42nd Street PA Terminal).
That said, it is probably much more effective to publicly solidaridize with the victims than directly fighting the aggressors.

Look at the relative success of the two approaches. Who's actually naive? Neo-nazis are gaining strength in Europe. The US just elected a black president.

Mocking people is only a good idea if they do not have a big enough stick. Once your nose is broken, you will likely change perspective.

That's the point. Mocking, or more precisely shaming, prevents th`em from getting the stick. People who join those types of groups do so to feel powerful. They don't join them to be the butt of jokes. Treating Nazis with hushed reverence only plays into that.

The fact that organized racism did not prevail in the US is more a lucky twist of history than anything.

It did prevail for centuries. And it's insulting to call it a twist of fate. The courage of civil rights advocates (many of whom died fighting for their cause) was not a "twist of fate". Ultimately it was shame that turned the public around. They didn't use force.

And mocking the cavallery did not help the native americans much, did it?

That's not a valid comparison. The reason why this kind of thing happened is that it was acceptable. I'm not saying you thumb your nose at a guy with a gun. It's way too late at that point. There was a time in early US history when many Native Americans were considered to be normal citizens. Many owned plantations (and slaves) and married into European families. Andrew Jackson then changed things to move them off their land in order to gain favor with the newer European immigrants.
Perhaps if Andrew Jackson and people with similar ideas had been mocked more successfully (and there was so much to mock), we'd have a much different history.

Ignoring criminals made certain quarters of NYC one of the most dreaded places of North America (including the 42nd Street PA Terminal).

You are making my point. I'm not suggesting that you ignore them, just that you don't let them control the conversation. When someone is arrested for denying the holocaust, it's international news. Great publicity, and some people will surely think "why would they try to silence him if it weren't true?" On the other hand, the pope reinstating that bishop was asinine. I wouldn't even let that guy on my property. Don't oversimplify what I am saying.
Mocking someone is obviously not ignoring them. And note what you wrote, the fact that they were criminals didn't solve much. And they weren't ignored. The reason New York is one of the safest large cities in the US today was because the focus was changed from going after 'serious' criminals only to dealing with petty crimes too. Basically they changed the way people (including criminals) thought the city. The naive solution is to attempt to arrest all the muggers, murders, and drug-dealers and put them in jail forever (kind of like arresting holocaust deniers or starting foolish wars in order to kill "evil-doers".) What actually worked was doing things like cleaning up graffiti and nabbing turnstile jumpers.

Look at the relative success of the two approaches. Who's actually naive? Neo-nazis are gaining strength in Europe. The US just elected a black president.

But they are gaining strength also in countries where it is absolutely legal to deny the holocaust. In fact you may get most news coverage from Germany but the Neo Nazi movements in Eastern Europe are at least as successful and neo facist parties are successful all over Europe (including Austria, France and Italy) but rather unsuccessful in Germany. There is also a fair amount of Neo Nazis in the US as well (Aryan Nation etc.).
So at the end of day, it is most probable that economic crisis feeds racism and nationalism. And of course racism and nationalism is much easier when a society is mostly homogeneous.

It's not about not talking about horrible events from the past, but about trivializing them. The word Nazi has become so trivialized that it's nearly come to mean someone who's simply hard headed and inflexible.

"I find it to be of very, very bad taste to make any kind of comparison to the nazi regime. "
Oh c'mon for god sake. It's been 60+ years now. Time to let it go and have some SS fun.
Don't be such a wuss.

Here is a real example of how things can go terribly awry when developers are given open access to production servers - they plundered it - took it away and started a new business..... it was not an ideal solution for enterprise, visit the satirical site at www.moretonsoftcrew.com and have a read... bring back the IT Nazis!

I wonder if posting or linking to this Video on theserverside is legal. Given my limited knowledge of copyright and intellectual property I'd assume that without the "express permission" of the copyright holder that I can safely assume not to exist using original footing from the movie is not very clever and can become very expensive indeed.

I wonder if posting or linking to this Video on theserverside is legal. Given my limited knowledge of copyright and intellectual property I'd assume that without the "express permission" of the copyright holder that I can safely assume not to exist using original footing from the movie is not very clever and can become very expensive indeed.

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